In the introduction to The Living Light, Mr. Goodwin, the founder of the Serenity Association, said the following about the Teacher, “I have seen him as an old man dressed in white with long flowing white hair. He has blue eyes, slightly smiling and deeply compassionate. I have always called him the Old Man. The students liked to call him the Wise One. He is surely one of those often called a Teacher of Light. I do not know his country, although he indicated at one time that he was from 6000 B.C. and a form of judge in his time.”
What is known of the Wise One is what he chose to share in various classes. From CC 111 through CC 125, the Wise One shares some of this personal history after he had left the Earth realm. Many of those experiences were difficult, yet they served a good purpose.
Here are a few spiritual teachings regarding his experiences:
“And now, for a few moments, in keeping with this evening’s discussion, I would like to share with you an experience or two of long, long ago, some of which I have already given to you in your little book [The Living Light Vol. 1].
“I had entered on this side of life and, as I had stated, wandered so very long upon the barren desert. For, you see, it was the effect of my own beliefs. Gradually, slowly but surely, with the help of what you may term an angel that came unto me—seemingly a dream—the gentle voice sang a song that reached the very strings of my heart. And as it did so, she beckoned me onward and I crawled along the desert for what surely, as I look back in time, must have been a thousand miles or more. However, the voice never failed to encourage me, no matter how long and how thirsty I got.
“And one day after seeming a great eternity, I lifted my head as I crawled along that desert floor. I lifted my head and saw a great body of water. And the very sense of its moisture filled my nostrils with the joy of life itself. And as I crawled closer to that great body of water, the voice said to me, “Pause, my child. Do not drink, though you are thirsty. Do not wash, though your very heart cries for the moisture and coolness of the water. Do not do those things until you have asked yourself, Are you willing, my friend, to give all that you think you have? Are you willing to give it without the question, without hope, and without any knowledge of an ending or a beginning? Are you willing to give what you think you have?
"And I looked at that beautiful water and I had to think, "What did I truly have?" I had a body and a rag upon me for clothes. What did I have that I could possibly desire to hold on to? And I thought and I pondered. It wasn't what I called my clothes on my back. It wasn't my body, for it was weary, tired, and sick. What was it, I had to ask myself, that didn't want to end? For I had no guarantee that it wouldn't. What was it? I thought and I thought and I thought. And the more I thought, even my thoughts I thought I was willing to surrender. And finally, as the days became the nights, and the nights became the days for three months and more I thought. And one day I reached what I know today was my final thought. And that is what I was not willing to give up. And that, my good children, is called the greatest magnet of all: it is the thought of I." | 
